A warm welcome back to all of our SMLS students and families!

 

I hope your winter break was everything you needed it to be—whether that was restful, adventurous, or simply a chance to connect with the people and activities that bring you joy.

As we begin a new term together, I sense that our community is well poised to learn, connect, and grow with many exciting initiatives and opportunities ahead for us all in 2025. 

At SMLS, we don’t need to look much farther than our own alumnae to find examples of inspiration and how a girls school experience like ours can make a positive difference in the life of our students. In our most recent edition of Jubilate, you can read stories about both our youngest and more experienced alumnae and see firsthand the power of the SMLS community.

These women have learned to draw on their many years of experience at SMLS, where they learned to believe in themselves, developed the courage to challenge and the strength to carry on. They are leaders in their fields of entrepreneurship, business, sports broadcasting, acting and producing; empowering other women in these male dominated fields. They identify the many attributes that they developed at SMLS - confidence, courage, tenacity, individualism, and a sense of self. This critical foundation, where girls learn to dare, sparks both a love of learning and a love of life, and this is the critical foundation we lay for our students at SMLS.

Also in this most recent issue of Jubilate, you will notice a contributing article from Megan Murphy, Global Executive Director, International Coalition of Girls’ Schools, highlighting today’s imperative for creating environments for girls. It is within the walls of girls schools, like SMLS, where we can prioritize both academic excellence and social engagement in a way that will prepare girls to take on vital roles in professions and within society to “help shape a future that is stronger, fairer, and more inclusive for all.” 

Earlier this year in one of our fall Millie Memo’s we referenced an infographic on: ‘Why Girls’ Schools are so Powerful’ that was published following the ICGS conference in June 2024. This has since been expanded and developed further, using students’ voices, to articulate ‘Why Girls’ Schools Matter.’ Listening to our students' experiences and watching our alumnae’s successes are the most relevant ways we can measure just how well we are preparing our students for life beyond the walls and hallways of our school. 

As we begin the new year together as a community, I invite us all to consider the role that we each take to inspire our girls to become empowered women of tomorrow. This is a task that is not done by a school alone, but that requires every mother, father, brother, or sister of a girl, for every coach and mentor, for everyone in our village to uplift our girls and to raise strong and self-confident citizens for the future. 

Three resources that I would like to suggest for our community members to consider as inspiring materials that can support our students include:  

I look forward to launching into our new year together and to continually find ways to support and uplift our girls to be the remarkable women that they will become, positively impacting the communities and professions that they will aspire to.

Catherine